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July 25, 2013

As you may remember, I've made fun wooden signs for each of my older daughters and have them hung in the kitchen. They love sitting at the little table under their sign ;)
Months ago I added a metal letter "B" which I love! When I had my 3rd daughter, I wanted to make her a sign too - and thought it would be cool to add another metal element, instead of wood.

After looking around for months for something suitable, I picked up this metal MPH sign at the antique fair for just a few bucks! Perfect.

My baby's middle name is Skye, and we live in New England, so Boston Skye Grill was the pick for her sign!
I didn't really want to paint over the original words on the sign, so I used the back, which was blank (and beat up;) ).
I first sketched my buildings with a ruler and a pencil. Then I used masking tape to section off the building lines that I had drawn.

The words and grill utensils I cut out with vinyl so that I could stick them down, paint over them, and then peel them off and leave the white of the sign. So the fork, spatula and est. 2012 are the plain white of the sign...

You can see -- it all got painted with black acrylic paint. Pretty easy!

For the other words, I used a vinyl stencil and painted the letters in, again with acrylic paint (I have a lot of that around my house, so I use it often)...

The flames were done last, and were a stencil also. Then I roughed up the paint a bit to match the rest of the metal:

I gave it a coat of clear protective spray, and that was it! It is covered in dings, holes and scratches - but I love it that way!!

Now, all three of my girls have their own signs, and they all look old and battered.
Mixed in with real antiques they look pretty awesome on the kitchen wall!

July 12, 2013

Aren't pillows the best? They transform the look of any room, they can be changed for every season. I love pillows! My friend recently gave me some pillow forms, and I am overflowing with ideas about where to put them. I thought I would do a roundup of some of my favorite DIY typography pillow ideas while I'm still trying to decide which ones I'll make for myself ;)

July 9, 2013

My sweet aunt sent us a couple of towel bibs that she made, and I love them!

They are easy to get on and off because they pull right over the head -- no snaps or ties or anything to deal with.

They are also awesome because of the full coverage! My little half moon style bibs don't really keep the baby clean :) But I love how long these ones are.

Plus, they are really absorbent - great for catching spills and wiping off hands and face when she's all done.

I bought a great big towel and was able to cut it down into 12 bibs! I just zig-zag stitched the raw edges to keep them from fraying - a serger would be great to use if you have one. Or, using bias tape to cover the edges would have worked too. I also made some bibs out of hand towels so that I didn't have to cut anything. They are not quite as thick, and are a little bigger, but I didn't have to sew the raw edges, which was nice.

There are a bunch of tutorials on the internet, but I think this is a great one from Tracy's Treasury. It is easy to follow - and the bibs are really pretty quick to make! The ribbing for the neck can be purchased by the yard at the fabric store, and so the whole project is really economical.

And she loves them!

These make a great baby shower gift - and certainly if you have a baby, you need some for yourself!

July 1, 2013

I want to connect with my awesome blogging friends - and now I have an Instagram account to do it!

Search for Diary of a Crafty Lady - or click here and see what this crafty lady does in between the blog posts :)

Also, you can check out DOACL on Facebook so that you don't miss the little crafts that come in between the big ones :) IG and FB are fun and fast, and I love hearing from and connecting with all you inspirational friends!

I have new buttons in the navigation bar to get easily to Instagram, Facebook, Google+, etc. - so come over and check those out!

And just in case you've missed them, I thought I'd catch you up.

Here are a few random things I have worked on over the past few months (all from my IG or FB feeds...)

Sometimes you just need to make silly signs. Yes, the 2nd is by the changing table...

The antique Singer I got for free on freecycle! Thank you New England!

Love this simple handmade gift tag

Puppy Chow popcorn...yes please!

Valentine LOVE blocks - who knew a 2x4 could look so good?

The late night - hours before the birthday - crafting project. She loved it :)